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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25064353">Stars Above Worlds To Be the Guides</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer'>Kalcifer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Friends at the Table (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>During Canon, F/F</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:41:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,097</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25064353</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>oh to be a mech pilot who is being scolded by an engineer for letting my mech get beat up too badly in combat despite my reckless actions being the key to success in the last mission</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Natalya Greaves/Tea Kenridge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stars Above Worlds To Be the Guides</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I saw <a href="https://twitter.com/trgrrl/status/1276178913455194112">this tweet</a>, went "that's just Tea and Natalya", and then a week later I looked up and I had this. I did not do any research into the Kingdom Game timeline, so don't think too hard about when this takes place. There are women and giant mechs, that's all that matters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Natalya’s creations are unique, tailor-made things. Her superiors know how good she is, and they know that having her work on a Rook, no matter how customized, would be a waste of time she could spend building them the next Panther. She barely even visits the main hangar.</p><p>No one bats an eye when she does now, or tries to stop her march towards the <em>Queen Custom</em>. It’s written across her face that interfering would be begging for trouble.</p><p>Tea can see it too, even as she picks her way out of the slightly mangled form of her mech. Alarm flashes across her face, though it’s quickly wiped away and replaced with a look of obstinacy. Tea has never passed up a chance for trouble, or failed to go back for seconds once she’s gotten it. That’s what brought Natalya down here in the first place.</p><p>It’s clear that Tea is gearing up for a fight, so Natalya doesn’t give her the satisfaction of one. She stares her down, cataloging the flush of adrenaline in Tea’s face, the messiness of her hair.</p><p>“Well?” Tea demands, the silence grating on her just as Natalya had known it would. “Are you here to yell at me or not?”</p><p>“That depends,” Natalya says evenly. “First, I’d like to know what the hell you were thinking that made any of that seem like a good idea.”</p><p>“Uh, isn’t it obvious? I was thinking I could win us the battle, and I was right.” Tea crosses her arms. “If you’re pissed that now you have to fix my mech, then whatever, my bad. But I’m not about to apologize for doing my job.”</p><p>“Sure, you won the battle.” Natalya lets the first hints of her own frustration creep into her voice. “Are you trying to tell me you couldn’t have found another way to do it? What about the rest of your squad? They named themselves after you, but they won’t back you up for such a strategically important attack?”</p><p>Tea stiffens. “There wasn’t time to give them the order.”</p><p>“I’ve run the numbers, I know that’s not true.” Natalya takes a step closer to Tea. She’s at a disadvantage if things get physical, but it’s clear that something is off, and she’s always been driven by a need to know. “What really happened out there?”</p><p>“What happened is that we took out a ton of Apostolosian fighters. You should be throwing me a party, not an interrogation.” Tea moves to shoulder past Natalya.</p><p>Natalya doesn’t let her, matching her pace. “We can’t afford another victory like that. You almost died, Tea. I don’t know if we can get the <em>Queen Custom</em> back in fighting shape in time for the next battle, and at the moment, I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing.”</p><p>“I bet you aren’t.” Tea snorts. “Maybe now you can officially replace me with Ibex. I’m sure the rest of the team will be thrilled.”</p><p>Natalya’s train of thought stalls. She’s been keeping an eye on Ibex, so she’d known he’d been ingratiating himself with the rest of the ship, but she hadn’t realized it had gotten so bad.</p><p>“Oh, you hadn’t heard?” Tea’s smile is bright and pointed. “They’re going by the King’s Gambit now. I’m surprised they haven’t asked me to rename the <em>Queen Custom</em> as a favor to their new best friend.”</p><p>“You know he’d think ‘King’ was beneath him, too. He’d probably want you to call it the <em>Righteous Savior of the Galaxy</em> or something equally pretentious.” Natalya sees the spark of humor in Tea’s eyes and is careful to maintain her jokey tone when she adds, “Honestly, everything would be so much easier if we could just get rid of Ibex.”</p><p>“No kidding.” Tea sighs. “Whatever. We’re getting close to the end of this mission, and then he’ll go back to the Diaspora and we’ll never have to worry about him except when he shows up on the news to say stupid shit. We can survive that long.”</p><p>Not quite the enthusiastic agreement Natalya had been hoping for, but it’s not a refusal, either. She files it away as something to suggest another time. For now, she needs to refocus. “I’d like to think that, but it’s hard to be sure if you’re going to be flying like that. You can’t keep getting lucky forever. Sooner or later, you’re going to get yourself killed.”</p><p>“Good thing I’m not getting lucky, then.” Tea shakes the hair out of her eyes. “Why do you even care? I’m getting results, and apparently you’re not the one who has to deal with the aftermath.”</p><p>The question gives Natalya pause. She likes Tea well enough, but she’s always aware of the distance between them, distance Natalya herself put there. She’s got her own mission. She shouldn’t risk it doing unnecessary things like getting close to her coworkers or making a scene confronting them in a room she never goes to.</p><p>Tea is watching her closely, clearly waiting for a response, and for the first time in ages Natalya doesn’t know what to say. The novelty of the situation only makes it harder for her to get her bearings.</p><p>Whatever the answer is, Natalya doesn’t find it in time. Tea’s lip curls in disgust. “I hope you got your kicks out of it, then, because I don’t have to listen to any more of this.”</p><p>This time, when she moves to go, Natalya lets her.</p><p>Natalya is still keenly aware that she has an audience, so she joins the cluster of technicians around the <em>Queen Custom</em>, trading ideas for upgrades and repair substitutions on autopilot. She might as well pretend to have had an official reason to be here. Even so, most of her attention is on her conversation with Tea, and how it went wrong so quickly.</p><p>The pit in her stomach when she’d seen Tea fly at the cloud of Colossi wasn’t anything Natalya had accounted for. She’d been glued to the incoming data, but unable to do anything with it, just watching the numbers roll past in a series of confirmations that Tea wasn’t dead yet. It was what had brought her down here, no plan beyond making sure that this didn’t happen again. Look how well that worked out for her.</p><p>At least it’s over now. She can figure out what went wrong later, when the lingering sense of dread has faded.</p>
<hr/><p>Sure enough, the <em>Queen Custom </em>is still undergoing repairs when they run into a cluster of Apostolosian ships. Natalya is kind of relieved. She’s been running the numbers, so she knows they’re unlikely to even sustain significant damage in the course of their victory. She can keep working on her report without concern.</p><p>Or without logistical concern, anyway. She’s distracted despite herself. The third time she loses her train of thought in the middle of a sentence, she gives up and goes to look for Tea. It’s clear she won’t be able to get anything done until she does.</p><p>She finds her at one of the viewports on the <em>Seventh Sun</em>, pointedly facing away from the skirmish. Natalya still barely gets a greeting in before Tea says, “You know, they didn’t even tell me there was a fight happening? I just happened to walk past the hangar and see that all the other mechs had been deployed.”</p><p>Natalya winces sympathetically. “At least they didn’t take Ibex?”</p><p>“Like he’d ever risk his oh-so-precious face on something as minor as this. That’s what he has us little people for, right?” Tea shakes her head, eyes still locked on the black expanse outside. Natalya can’t tell what she’s looking for.</p><p>“You took out all those Colossi single-handedly, I don’t think anyone would call you little.” She comes up beside Tea but doesn’t try for eye contact, just looks out the viewport with her.</p><p>“I thought that was ‘reckless’ and ‘going to get me killed’.” There’s no bite to Tea’s voice. She just sounds tired.</p><p>“I never said it wasn’t. It was also, to use the technical term, impressive as hell.” In the shadowed reflection on the glass, Natalya sees Tea’s lips quirk upward. It’s a good expression on her. Natalya finds her own lips are dry and licks them self-consciously. “Just don’t do it again.”</p><p>“Thanks, I guess, but that’s not really up to me,” Tea says. “This is a war. People are going to die, and if it comes down to it, it’s my job to die first so people like you don’t.”</p><p>“Not if I have anything to say about it.” Natalya regrets the words as soon as they’ve left her mouth. They don’t mean anything of substance. It’s not like she can stop the war, or even do anything to protect Tea from her comfortable room on the ship.</p><p>Even so, Tea’s expression softens. “Hey, don’t worry about me. Like you said, I’m cool as shit, and I have a vested interest in not letting it get to that point.”</p><p>“I’m pretty sure that’s not what I said.” There’s a matching smile playing across Natalya’s own face. She doesn’t know why she thought this would make her any less distracted.</p><p>“No, that’s definitely what I heard.” Tea turns to face Natalya at last. Natalya mirrors the motion cautiously. “I think I’m going to do something else reckless now, so here’s your chance to stop me.” She leans in, and Natalya has just as enough time to realize what’s happening before Tea kisses her.</p><p>It’s like time stops as Natalya tries to break this moment down, analyze it from every angle, and archive it for later. The first, most relevant detail is that <em>Tea is kissing her</em>. She hates to draw conclusions from a limited data set, but this seems pretty significant.</p><p>Almost as important is the fact that Natalya is kissing Tea back. She can’t judge how well she’s doing – she’s not exactly an objective observer, and she only has a limited amount of experience anyway. She’s never been that kind of spy. She thinks her enthusiasm should count for something, though.</p><p>Which leads her to her third point: she’s very happy that to be kissing Tea. It does a lot to explain her distraction earlier, and her distress the other day, now that she thinks about it. Really, this has been going on for weeks. She doesn’t know how she missed the pattern. In retrospect, it wasn’t subtle.</p><p>She could probably keep going, keep revisiting her memories to pinpoint the exact second these feelings started, but somehow that seems less important than committing this moment to memory.</p><p>They break apart after some length of time has passed. (Natalya hasn’t been keeping track.) Tea tries to put on her signature cocky grin, but it doesn’t sit right, a subtler and more heartfelt happiness shining through at the edges. “What did I tell you? It’s only reckless if you don’t know you can pull it off.”</p><p>Apparently, this is what they’re doing now, so Natalya grabs for a deadpan, aware that her own joy is equally apparent. “I have been seduced by your maverick ways, Commander Kenridge.”</p><p>“I’m the one your parents warned you about.” Tea pauses. For someone bragging about her own boldness, she’s strangely hesitant. “So… Does this mean…?”</p><p>“Yes.” Natalya’s wiling to be the reckless one here, if that’s what it takes. “Whatever you’re asking, my answer is yes.”</p><p>“Oh, come on, you have no idea what I was going to say. What if I was about to ask if we could keep this strictly casual?”</p><p>“You weren’t.” Natalya hasn’t got simulations for this, but she knows Tea, knows the way she throws herself headfirst into battles and conversations and relationships. She doesn’t do anything casual.</p><p>“I could have been!” Tea looks aware of her own ridiculousness, but now she’s thrown herself into this line of argument too.</p><p>“Fine. Let me be clear, then. Yes, I’m in love with you. Yes, I understand our situation right now. Yes, I would like to be in a relationship with you despite it.” Natalya tilts her head. “Did I miss anything?”</p><p>“Geeze, put it all out there, why don’t you.” Tea can’t meet Natalya’s eyes. The fact that she can practically make out in the middle of the hallway but this is what gets her is kind of endearing. “But, yeah, me too. To all of that.”</p><p>“Great.” Natalya takes Tea’s hand, nudging her shoulder with hers. “Want to watch the stars with me, then?”</p><p>Tea laughs quietly. “You know, I think I would.”</p>
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